The top and bottom of the Container Houses

The process of creating a Container House is broken into four stages: factory production of the structure; interior and exterior finishings and features; transportation and fast assembly. Each module is transported by truck direct from the factory with all of the home's final features, including interior furnishings, flooring, insulation, windows, doors, water facilities, electricity and complete external facade. This allows for fast installation once on site, speeding up traditional construction times.

By September of 2002, we had our barn closed in so we could store our household possessions when we sold our house in the city. We bought a fifth-wheel trailer to live in until we were able to build a home, and finally moved onto our country homestead in September of 2002.

We got electricity from a generator, and when we inquired with the power company about getting electricity out to the homestead, we were told it would be at least $20,000. We decided to take that money and put it into a solar system, which has evolved into a very reliable system with panels, batteries and back-up generator. Our well is even solar-powered now, though we didn’t have that at first.

You bet it does! The composter has been in active use for nearly a year now, and it's exceeding all expectations. The Eco-Village crew alone provides a minimum of ten visits a day in the off-season, and once our many visitors arrive, the waterless commode regularly services 30 people daily. (Over the 1983 Independence Day weekend, visitors to the "little house" used 18 rolls of two-ply tissue!) And so far, we've detected no signs of waste-digestion problems, odors or insect troubles—the three most common composter bugaboos.

The prototype unit has been so successful, in fact, that it was the first (and at this writing, still the only) composting commode to receive approval from our county inspector—and Eco-Village staffers are planning to build several more almost-exact replicas in the next few months.

Insulated containers have welded structural insulated panel walls and ceilings and can be used as-is with utilities surface-mounted or can mount wall coverings directly with screws or using wood strips. Fully stripped container frames will employ conventional SIP panels adapted to size or be framed up securing posts to the top and bottom of the Container Houses. If not using something with a pre-finished exterior surface, additional wall cladding may be needed.